Emotional Connection Fuels Success

A non-profit that serves children and their families was planning to expand nationwide, more than doubling its local chapters. The organization’s execution and messaging were disjointed across all stakeholder groups including the board, paid staff, volunteers, families and donors. The organization’s inconsistent execution and misalignment were impeding the planned expansion and creating financial shortfalls.

We conducted in-depth interviews with all the stakeholders across the existing chapters to identify why they were involved, what was important and what motivated them to stay involved in the dysfunctional environment.  From the data, we pulled out the common themes and identified the emotional connection to the organization. Leveraging this work, we built a brand positioning including the background, values, history and vision/mission and positioning statements. To support the execution of the brand positioning, we developed the brand standards (graphics, colors, fonts, images), a messaging plan with talking points for all audiences, a social media strategy and an annual giving campaign.

With the successful implementation of the brand positioning and its emotional connection, the annual giving campaign doubled the donations of prior campaigns. Additionally, the organization was able to get on track with expansion of chapters.